The Unknown Page 9

  "You kids are gonna do time for this, I swear it!" Captain Torrelli yelled.

  BUMPBUMPBUMP. SQUUUEEEEEEGEEE!

  I was scraped along a sharp turn. I tried to grab the lip of the boat channel and pull myself out, but I was too weak and the force of the water was too strong.

  What to do? I couldn't morph. There were witnesses. I'd just have to float along until. . .

  Until the big huge drop!

  "Ahhhhh!" I cried.

  "I think Cassie just figured out where we're headed," Marco said.

  146 "Ahhhhh!" I confirmed.

  Another sharp turn. BUMPBUMPBUMP! SQUUUUEEEEGEEE!

  And then, just a few dozen feet ahead, just ahead of the log boat we had been in, I saw another boat suddenly disappear. And I heard screams. Happy screams. Totally different from my scream.

  "Aaaaaahhhhhh!"

  I was racing toward a waterfall. And there was nothing I could do to stop it!

  "No! No! Noooooo!"

  "Oh, man! No! No! Noooooo!"

  "This is insaaaaane! Nooooo!"

  "I'll get you kids for this! Nooooooo!"

  And over the edge we went. I skidded on my butt down a fifty-foot water slide. Which was bad enough. But just a few feet behind me were two guys and an angry man.

  And just a few feet farther back was another log boat. A log boat that would squash us all like bugs if it hit us.

  Down I fell, screaming the entire way!

  BAH-LOOOOSH!

  I hit the lagoon and rolled to my left as fast as I could move my waterlogged body. Something hit me, but it wasn't a boat.

  "Hah! Cindy Crawford! You think I don't re-

  147 member your name? You are under arrest!" Captain Torrelli cried exultantly.

  But then he slipped and his head went under the water and I was out of there.

  We joined up just outside the exit from the log ride. Three extremely wet, barefoot kids in bike shorts and aerobics suits.

  "You know, basically that was fun," Marco said. "If you set aside the whole could-have-been-crushed-by-a-log-boat thing."

  Jake squeegeed the water out of his hair. "Okay, so it's not the log ride. No Yeerks there."

  "House of Horrors," I agreed. "Definitely the House of Horrors."

  We ran for the House of Horrors. But as we ran there came the sound of a not-too-distant voice crying. "Police! Security! Police!"

  So we ran faster.

  148 We ran for the House of Horrors, bare wet feet SLAP-SLAP-SLAPPING all the way. It was halfway across the amusement park. I was panting and sweating and holding my sides from the pain by the time we got there.

  "Now what?" Marco asked.

  "Now we find the others," Jake said.

  "But they could be in morph. We don't even know what we're looking for," I pointed out.

  "Exactly. And then we have to figure out if the Yeerks are using the House of Horrors to kidnap and infest guys from Zone Ninety-one."

  "Even though we don't know if the Yeerks will be plain old human-Controllers or Hork-Bajir or whatever," I said.

  149 "Exactly."

  "And in the meantime," I concluded, "we have to avoid getting arrested by an Air Force captain who is frantically trying to protect the Most Secret Place On Earth, where they are hiding an old Andalite toilet."

  Marco laughed sardonically. "Does anyone else ever think maybe we've all just lost our minds? You know, like maybe none of this is real and we're escaped lunatics from the local hospital for the hopelessly wacko?"

  "Hey, we're saving the world here, Marco," I said.

  "That's what all lunatics say."

  "Come along, my wacko friends." Jake led the way toward the House of Horrors entrance.

  This ride involved cars on tracks as opposed to log boats in water. I was relieved that at least there wasn't any water.

  The three of us piled into one of the cars. A fourth person was seated with us. He was a man, maybe thirty years old. He smiled at me.

  "Sure this isn't too scary for you kids?"

  "No, sir. We're pretty good at handling scary stuff," I said.

  "I don't see the others," Jake muttered under his breath as the car lurched away down the track.

  "Boo-ah-ah-hah-HAH!" a mechanical skeleton shrieked.

  150 "Beware! Beware all ye who enter here!" a loud, booming recorded voice cried. "Beware the horrors that lie within!"

  Then, "Aaaaaarrrggghh!" A mechanical pirate holding his own severed head jerkily waved a sword at us.

  A huge snake turned and aimed its cobralike head at us, staring with glittering green eyes.

  "Yeah, yeah, big deal," Marco said. "Could this get any faker?"

  "Why are you kids so cynical?" the crew-cut man asked.

  "We watch too much TV," Marco answered.

  The car spun and banged backward through a doorway into the next room of the House of Horrors. In a flash of lightning I saw the car behind us. In it were also four people. Captain Torrelli and three uniformed Gardens security guys.

  "What is with that guy?" I asked.

  "Hey, Captain, havin' fun?" crew cut yelled back to Torrelli.

  "Airman Jones!" Torrelli yelled. "Don't let those kids get away!"

  "These kids?" Airman Jones asked, pointing at us.

  "Yeah. Those kids! At least that girl and the boy with the smirk!"

  Our car jerked violently back around and we

  151 were being shrieked at by a flight of ghosts passing overhead.

  "That Captain Torrelli. What a joker that guy is," I said weakly to Airman Jones.

  "Captain Torrelli has never joked in his life," Jones growled. "You kids are gonna have to stay with me till the captain can talk to you."

  We passed beneath the flying ghosts. And that's when the ride got weird. Really weird.

  See, somehow, whoever had built the ride seemed to have created perfect, life-size replicas of six Hork-Bajir warriors. And standing behind them, also frozen in place, was a creature with the body of a deer, the tail of a scorpion, and a mouthless face. They were all very lifelike. Probably because they were alive.

  Visser Three was in the House of Horrors.

  "Okay, new I'm scared," Marcosaid.

  "Where are Rachel and Tobias and Ax?" Jake asked in a low voice.

  "There," I said. I pointed to a frozen, life-size replica of one of the scariest things on Earth: an eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear. The grizzly was on its hind legs, reared up. It was standing perfectly still. Except for the fact that you could see it breathing.

  Sitting atop the grizzly bear was a bird. It was too dark to make out the tail feathers, but I could guess what color they were.

  152 And completing this odd tableau, a rattlesnake was coiled around the grizzly bear's up-stretched paw.

  Rachel and the others must have seen the Yeerks moving into place. They'd gotten there first and were now waiting for the Yeerks to make their move.

  The loudspeaker blared. "Nyah-hah-hah-hah! Beware the graveyard ghouls!"

  In between the Hork-Bajir, the visser, and my friends the bear, the hawk, and the snake, were really fake-looking tombstones topped with greenish skulls.

  "This is the best part of the ride," Jones said. "Those big blade monsters there are really cool!"

  I rolled my eyes. My stomach rolled all on its on.

  "This is so totally going to turn ugly," Marco said.

  153 Pave you ever known something was going to happen right before it did happen? It almost seems like you're psychic. But usually it's just that your brain has put things together and figured something out.

  Well, in the split second before everything cut loose, I realized something: Out in the Dry Lands, the visser had talked about having a list of the humans who would be useful. And who would be more useful to the Yeerks than the head of security for Zone 91?

  No time to be subtle. "They'll go for Torrelli!" I yelled.

  Our car was turned forward and we were past the tableau of Hork-Bajir and Animorphs.
But

  154 heard a loud scream and I knew it wasn't one of those giddy, happy, fun-house screams.

  Jake leaped from the car. I leaped after him and collided with Marco. The three of us barely missed being cut in two as the car we'd been in slammed through a narrow door.

  I fell to my knees. We were on the tableau! We were suddenly a part of the House of Horrors Ride. And that ride had gone totally gruesome.

  Six big Hork-Bajir bounded toward Captain Torrelli's car. It had been his scream we'd heard.

  One of the uniformed guards raised his gun. Too slow! A hundred times too slow to beat a Hork-Bajir!

  SLASH!

  The Hork-Bajir swept its wrist blade.

  "Aaaaahhhhh! Aaaahhhh! Aaaaahhhh!" the man bellowed in pain.

  The Hork-Bajir yanked the guards up out of their seats and literally threw them back into the scenery. Captain Torrelli was alone in the car. But then two Hork-Bajir grabbed him, careful not to injure him, and lifted him up like he was a doll.

  And all the while, the stupid loudspeaker was yammering, "Nyah-hah-hah-hah! Beware the graveyard ghouls!"

  But Captain Torrelli was not alone.

  "RRRRRAAAWWWRRR!" Rachel roared in

  155 her big grizzly bear voice. She flung the rattlesnake straight at the nearest Hork-Bajir.

  The snake - Ax in morph - wrapped itself tightly around the alien's neck and sank poisonous fangs deep.

  "Tseeeeeer!" Tobias launched himself, talons outstretched, and ripped at the vulnerable eyes of a second Hork-Bajir.

  But that still left four of the big, bladed monsters, not to mention the visser himself. And not even Rachel could handle them all. Although she tried. I swear she grinned a bear grin as she swung one fry ing-pan-sized paw into the head of a Hork-Bajir.

  FWUMP! The Hork-Bajir rocked back and fell unconscious.

  SHLUMP! He hit the floor.

  «The Andalite bandits!» Visser Three cried in thought-speak.

  That's what the Yeerks think we are: An-dalites. They know whoever we are, we can morph. And they know only Andalites have mor-phing technology.

  «We can't stay and fight,» the visser pouted. «Much as I would enjoy destroying these vermin! We have priorities. Bring the human!»

  "We have to morph!" Jake hissed to rne and Marco. "Into the shadows! Before the visser gets away!"

  156 I had already started. This was a fight. I needed something powerful. Something extremely dangerous.

  "They're taking the captain!" Marco yelled.

  "We can't stop them! We need more fire-power," Jake yelled. "Morph!"

  My morph was already under way. Thick gray fur was sprouting from every inch of my body. My mouth was becoming a muzzle. A muzzle filled with long, sharp teeth.

  «l could use some help here!» Rachel called as she knocked another Hork-Bajir into a wall.

  The Hork-Bajir Ax had filled with rattlesnake venom was staggering.

  But Visser Three and two of the Hork-Bajir had disappeared from view with Captain Torrelli.

  "Cool!" a voice squealed. "Now, this part of the ride is excellent!"

  To my amazement, people were still passing by on the ride! Every few seconds another carload rattled past, filled with people who must have thought they were watching the most realistic House of Horrors Ride in all history.

  "Look! It's a werewolf!" someone said. He pointed. Right at me. Fortunately, we were all three in deep shadows. No one would ever be able to recognize us.

  I was just finishing my morph. I had gone, as quickly as I possibly could, from human to wolf.

  158 Rachel was roaring and belowing. Tobias was shrieking and flapping his wings. Ax was looking for another victim. But the fact was, Visser Three had Captain Torrelli. And the visser was gone.

  I looked at Jake. He was just completing his tiger morph. I looked at Marco. He was almost all the way into his gorilla morph. I felt my wolf senses turn on. It was a powerful moment. There is nothing on Earth like a wolf's sense of smell. And nothing much like a wolf's sense of hearing.

  I could tell exactly, precisely where Captain Torrelli had gone. I could smell every dragging footstep he had taken.

  Then, suddenly, the remaining Hork-Bajir warriors bolted. They raced after Visser Three and Captain Torrelli.

  «After them!» Jake yelled.

  FWAPP! FWAPP! FWAPP! CA-RUNNCH!

  Bright lights! Blazing neon! It took a few seconds for me to figure out what had happened. Then I saw: Visser Three had used his Andalite tail to slice through the back wall of the House of Horrors. His Hork-Bajir had knocked the wall down.

  Visser Three, his Hork-Bajir, and poor Captain Torrelli were loose on the grounds of The Gardens.

  157

  The evil Andalite-Controller and six Hork-Bajir - several of which were staggering from the wounds Rachel, Tobias, and Ax had inflicted - barrelled into the neon night, dragging a helpless Captain Torrelli.

  They were pursued by a red-tailed hawk, a tiger, a wolf, a grizzly bear, and a gorilla with a rattlesnake around his neck.

  "Help! Help!" Captain Torrelli cried.

  «Back to the ship!» Visser Three yelled.

  «After them!» Jake yelled.

  «This is insane!» Marco cried. «lnsane!»

  And the band played "Seventy-six Trom-

  159 bones" with lots of loud tuba and louder pounding bass drums.

  Yes, I said the band. Because, you see, the nightly Gardens Parade of Characters was swinging up the main street. There was a brass band. In fact there were three. There were dance teams. There were clowns. There were floats. And best of all, there were cartoon characters.

  Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, the Tasmanian Devil, and Pepe Le Pew. They were all there in bigger-than-life costumes, dancing amidst a blaze of colored lights that blotted out the stars.

  I ran full-out. I was faster than Rachel. I had more endurance than Jake. The Yeerks were moving swiftly, straight toward the parade.

  Suddenly, out jumped a Daffy Duck! Right in Visser Three's path. The Yeerk visser snapped his deadly tail. It flew through the air and Daffy's head went rolling across the ground.

  «Noooo!» I cried.

  The girl wearing the costume stuck her head up and said, "Hey! What's the matter with you?"

  «Aaaahhhh!» the visser moaned. «What kind of creature is that?»

  He slowed a bit. Just for a few seconds, as he contemplated the weirdness of a creature with a

  160 smaller head inside a larger head. And during that hesitation, we caught up.

  Jake let loose a roar that seemed to knock the cotton candy right out of children's hands.

  "RRRROOOOAAAARRRRR!"

  We all charged. I leaped for the throat of the nearest Hork-Bajir with my yellowed teeth bared in a snarl. The Hork-Bajir swung an elbow blade at me but I twisted with unnatural speed. The blade only sliced fur.

  The Hork-Bajir couldn't use its blades. I was in too close. All it could do was claw at me, and that wasn't enough.

  A vicious battle raged. Rachel and two Hork-Bajir. Jake, sinking his tiger fangs into another Hork-Bajir. Marco, using Ax's snake morph like a bullwhip, snapping him in to bite, yanking him back out.

  And Tobias was using all his speed and agility to tear at the visser's vulnerable Andalite stalk eyes.

  "Yay!" a voice yelled.

  "Cool!" another voice cried.

  And then people started applauding wildly. Without even noticing, we had been swept up into the parade. We had become part of the show.

  And the people loved it!

  I dropped away from my Hork-Bajir. He was

  161 out of the fight. I ran for the Hork-Bajir who was still yanking Captain Torrelli along. He was way out in front, weaving through the parade. Weaving past Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Barreling rudely through the brass band, which was now playing "You're a Grand Old Flag!"

  "Here boy! Here boy!" some kid yelled as I shot past. Like I was a dog.

  The crowd grew
thick just ahead of me. Too thick for me to see Captain Torrelli. But I could still smell him. I could smell the minuscule traces of scent left by his shoes. I could smell about ten thousand things right then, everything from candy apples to the grease on the bearings of the Ferris wheel to the gel on a punk guy's hair. It was almost too much.

  But I focused hard on just one smell: a few floating molecules that said "Torrelli" to my wolf nose. I put my nose down and shouldered through the crowd. People petted me. People bumped into me. I didn't care. My wolf nose was working, and there was no way I was going to lose the captain.

  The crowd thinned out. I looked left, right. I saw nothing. But the scent trail led left and my wolf ears picked out one voice among all the thousands of voices, one sound among all the sounds of The Gardens.

  "You're connected with those darned kids,

  162 aren't you?" Captain Torrelli demanded angrily of the Hork-Bajir.

  I went after him at a full run. There! A Hork-Bajir dragging the captain. The alien brushed aside a child who had rushed over with his mom to have her take his picture with "the monster."

  I timed my approach and I fired my wolf haunches. I flew through the air, aiming right for the back of the Hork-Bajir's neck.

  "Rrrumpf!"

  "Aaaarrrrggghhh!" the alien cried.

  Captain Torrelli broke free and ran like his life depended on it. Which it pretty much did.

  I relaxed my jaws and dropped to the ground. The Hork-Bajir and I stared balefully at each other for a few seconds. We sized each other up like a couple of boxers in the ring. But then we both saw and heard the visser go rushing past in a clatter of Andalite hooves.

  The Hork-Bajir ran to join his commander and suddenly, the Yeerk invasion of The Gardens was over.

  A few moments later, the others caught up to me. We watched a pair of Bug fighters rise from the amusement park and streak into the sky.

  They had hidden the Bug fighters in plain sight. They'd been parked atop the Alien Adventure Ride.

  As the Bug fighters powered away into the

  163 night, I noticed a kid shaking his head disgustedly. "Those aren't what alien spaceships look like," he said.

  "That's for sure," his grandfather agreed. "I was taken aboard a spaceship once. The aliens performed medical experiments on me. And their ship was nothing like that."